LIANE HANSEN, host:
From NPR News this is Weekend Edition. I'm Liane Hansen. And joining us is puzzle master Will Shortz, and he's actually joining us from Minsk. Will, what are you doing in Minsk?
WILL SHORTZ: Hi, Liane. It's the 17th World Puzzle Championship. There's 22 teams from all over the world here, and the winner is U.S.A.
HANSEN: All right. Well we have the sports thing coming up in just a second, but I just want to say how nice it was to see you at the Japan Society, and you went on to do the Sudoku Championship in Philadelphia so...
SHORTZ: That's right.
HANSEN: Why don't we reveal some secrets, and people will understand. First of all, the challenge that you left with everyone last week.
SHORTZ: That came from Ed Pegg, Jr. who runs the Web site Mathpuzzle.com. I said the phrase "Nonclassical analysis" contains eight different letters of the alphabet, two of them once, two of them twice, two of them three times, and two of them four times. And I asked the name of what sports team has the same property.
HANSEN: What was your answer?
SHORTZ: The answer is the Philadelphia Phillies.
HANSEN: How prescient. I bet you were doing that because of the Sudoku Championship but were completely unaware that they would pull off a World Series championship in the week between...
SHORTZ: I had a feeling.
HANSEN: You had.
(Soundbite of laughter)
HANSEN: You can say that now, right? Well, about 2,000 other people had a similar feeling. And our randomly selected someone from the correct entries to play the game on the air with us is Ed Kulsick of Sun City West, Arizona. Hi, Ed.
Mr. ED KULSICK (Competition Winner): Good morning.
HANSEN: Are you a Phillies fan?
Mr. KULSICK: No. I grew up in New York, and I'm still a diehard Mets fan.
HANSEN: Oh, I'm so sorry. This year was tough.
Mr. KULSICK: It was.
HANSEN: Oh dear. Well, how long did it take you to solve our puzzle?
Mr. KULSICK: Actually, about an hour.
HANSEN: Cool. You're going to be doing something special this coming Tuesday, right?
Mr. KULSICK: Yes. My wife and I will be up bright and early, and we will be working at the local polling place where what we expect will be a very busy Election Day.
HANSEN: I bet it will be. I bet it will be. So take some time to play now. Are you ready?
Mr. KULSICK: I'm ready.
HANSEN: All right, Will, meet Ed. Let's play.
SHORTZ: All right, Ed and Liane. Today I've brought a game of categories using the word "Minsk." For each category I give you, you tell me something in it starting with each of the letters M-I-N-S-K. If the category were two-syllable girl's names, you might say Mary, Ingrid, Norma, Sarah, and Kathy. All right, here's your first category. Makes of automobiles.
Mr. KULSICK: Mazda.
SHORTZ: Good.
Mr. KULSICK: Nissan.
SHORTZ: Good.
Mr. KULSICK: Kia.
SHORTZ: Good.
Mr. KULSICK: Saturn.
SHORTZ: And S. Saturn, yes. And just an I.
SHORTZ: Two of them from Japan.
HANSEN: Isuzu?
Mr. KULSICK: Isuzu.
SHORTZ: Isuzu and Infiniti.
HANSEN: Infiniti.
SHORTZ: Good job. Here's your second category. Parts of the human body.
Mr. KULSICK: Mouth.
SHORTZ: Aha.
Mr. KULSICK: Instep.
SHORTZ: OK. Intestines also.
Mr. KULSICK: Nose.
SHORTZ: Good.
Mr. KULSICK: Sinuses?
SHORTZ: All right. Shoulders, spine, stomach, aha. And a K.
Mr. KULSICK: Knee.
SHORTZ: Knee. Excellent. Here's your next category. Indian tribes.
Mr. KULSICK: Sioux for S.
SHORTZ: Good.
Mr. KULSICK: Kiowa for K.
SHORTZ: Excellent.
Mr. KULSICK: N would be Navajo.
SHORTZ: Good.
Mr. KULSICK: Mohawk.
SHORTZ: Mohawk. Good, and then I.
Mr. KULSICK: The only one I can think of is Inca.
HANSEN: Iroquois.
SHORTZ: Iroquois, yes. Also the Illinois. All right, here's your last category. Words of five or more letters ending in K.
Mr. KULSICK: S would be stock.
SHORTZ: Good.
Mr. KULSICK: K would be kiosk.
SHORTZ: Aha.
HANSEN: Can I use a foreign term?
(Soundbite of laughter)
SHORTZ: Yeah, go ahead.
HANSEN: All right. No, I've just - some - I remember - this cartoon (unintelligible) called somebody a nudnik? I mean, it's kind of - I think it's Yiddish for something. Yeah.
SHORTZ: That's on my list. I think that's English now.
HANSEN: All right.
SHORTZ: And an I. Think of something you strike to make a light or to...
HANSEN: Match, matchstick.
SHORTZ: Matchstick is good, and all you need is an I.
HANSEN: Icepick.
SHORTZ: Icepick, yes. Nice work. Very well done, Liane.
HANSEN: Hey, oh! Ed, man, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put that through your heart.
(Soundbite of laughter)
HANSEN: You were great.
Mr. KULSICK: It's not nearly as easy on the telephone as it is just listening to the radio.
HANSEN: Oh, that's what they all say. But you're absolutely right. It is not as easy. But it's fun. And we've added some fun. We've had a series of celebrity guests reading what you can take home for being our guest today. Our guest this week appeared Thursday night during the season premier of his Emmy award winning television show "30 Rock."
(Soundbite of TV show "30 Rock")
Ms. TINA FEY: (As Liz Lemon) Jack?
Mr. ALEC BALDWIN: (As Jack Donaghy) I'm back, Lemon. Devon thought he could humiliate me, but he doesn't understand that I worked my way up from the bottom before, and I can do it again. The last time took me 22 years, but I know so much more now. This time I think I can do it in nine.
Ms. FEY: (As Liz Lemon) So you're going to be a mailroom guy?
Mr. BALDWIN: (As Jack Donaghy) I'm going to be head mailroom guy. I've already been promoted once since this morning.
HANSEN: That's Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy on "30 Rock." And here he is with your puzzle prizes, Ed.
Mr. ALEC BALDWIN (Actor): For playing our puzzle today, you'll get a Weekend Edition lapel pin, the Eleventh Edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, the Scrabble Deluxe Edition from Parker Brothers, "The Puzzlemaster Presents" from Random House, volume two, Will Shortz's "Little Black Book of Sudoku" and "Black and White Book of Crosswords" from St. Martin's Press, and one of Will Shortz's "Puzzlemaster Decks" of riddles and challenges from Chronicle Books. And I listen to Weekend Edition on WNYC in New York.
HANSEN: What do you think, Ed?
Mr. KULSICK: Sounds very good to me.
HANSEN: What member station do you listen to?
Mr. KULSICK: KJZZ in Phoenix.
HANSEN: Ed Kulsick of Sun City West, Arizona, have a good day on Election Day. Wear some comfortable shoes. And thanks a lot for playing the puzzle with us. You were great.
Mr. KULSICK: Thank you very much.
HANSEN: All right. Will, a challenge for everyone to try and solve in the next week.
SHORTZ: Yes. This week's challenge comes from listener Peter Weiss. It's a little different from the usual, and it's in recognition of the presidential election on Tuesday. The names of Presidents Reagan and Clinton have something unusual in common. In fact, these are the only presidents in U.S. history whose name share this characteristic. What is it? So again, the names of Presidents Reagan and Clinton have something very unusual in common. These are the only presidents in U.S history whose names share this characteristic. What characteristic is it?
HANSEN: When you have the answer, go to our Web site, npr.org/puzzle, and click on the "Submit Your Answer" link. Only one entry per person, please. Our deadline this week is Thursday, 3 p.m. Eastern time. Please include a phone number where we can reach you at about that time, and we'll call you if you're the winner, and you'll get to play puzzle on the air with the puzzle editor of The New York Times and Weekend Edition's puzzle master and man in Minsk, Will Shortz. Will, thanks a lot.
SHORTZ: Thanks a lot, Liane.
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